Dodd-Frank will be targeted, Mnuchin says

The Trump administration plans to target the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law as a way to stimulate economic growth, Donald Trump’s pick for treasury secretary said Wednesday morning.

Steven Mnuchin, a long-time Goldman Sachs banker tapped by Trump to lead the Treasury, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday morning that going after the law will be one of his top priorities.

“The number one problem with Dodd-Frank is it’s way too complicated and it cuts back lending, so we want to strip back parts of Dodd-Frank that prevent banks from lending and that will be the number one priority on the regulatory side,” Mnuchin said. “The number one priority is going to be make sure that banks lend.”

Mnuchin, who has never served in government, said his private sector experience showed him the law’s flaws.

“We have actually been bankers,” Mnuchin said, referring to himself and Wilbur Ross, who Trump has picked to lead the Commerce Department. “We’ve been in the business of regional banking and we understand what it is to make loans and that’s the engine of growth to small and medium sized business.”

Dodd-Frank, passed in the wake of the financial crisis and aimed at preventing some of the practices the precipitated it, has long been a target for Republicans, who say the strict regulations on financial institutions have limited the flow of capital.

Mnuchin was less specific about other aspects of the law, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it created. Many Republicans loathe the agency. Mnuchin said only that the new administration is “going to take a look at all these things.”